Knowledge Tome Database in Notion

Welcome back to Earthmote. We are continuing our discussion on how to create a campaign management system in Notion. Today, we discuss the Knowledge Tome database. The knowledge tome is the final database in the system! After this article, you should have case studies on every major database in my system. Hopefully that inspiration will be enough to help you create your own.
 
The Knowledge Tome is my distillery of information. All the content I have gathered and consumed I coalesce into a single Knowledge Tome topic. Then, with those resources in mind, I write out my own notes about the topic. This helps me in a few different ways:
  • Forces me to summarize the information that I’ve learned.
  • Provides a reference sheet for when I’m thinking about these different topics.
  • Builds one idea off another by combining and reviewing them in a single place.

Knowledge Tome Topics

The Knowledge Tome summarizes topics that pertain to being a game master. This is a rather vague description, so I thought I’d list out the topics that are currently in my own Knowledge Tome. You may have different topics than me and that is okay. Capture and combine the information in a way that makes the most sense to you.
  • Adventure Design
  • Campaign Building
  • Character Design
  • Combat
  • DM Organization
  • DM Prep Work
  • Dungeon Design
  • Encounter Design
  • Exploration
  • Faction Design
  • Item Design
  • Map Making
  • Monster Building
  • Roleplaying
  • Social Encounters
  • Story Design
  • Trap & Puzzle Design
  • Villain Design
  • Worldbuilding

Descriptive Properties

The Knowledge Tome database contains no descriptive properties except for the title. The title names the knowledge category.

Relational Properties

Knowledge Tome ties to a few databases in my Notion system. They include:
  • Media. What Media content covers the subject?
  • Ideas & Notes. What ideas or notes relate to the subject?
  • Related Subjects. Which other knowledge subjects relate to the subject? This is a self-referential column.
  • Creator. Which content creators are experts on the subject?
When I put everything together, this is an example of what my Media Tome database looks like:
 
Knowledge Tome Notion Database Preview

Notion Template for Knowledge Tome

I do have a template that I use for the knowledge tome. It lets me organize my connected sources and process them in a digestible format. Here are the main elements that I include in my template:
  • Key takeaways on the subject
  • A design process checklist (if applicable)
  • In-depth write ups on sub-sections of the subject
  • Table of related media content
  • Table of related content creators
Format your template in a manner that makes sense to you. How do you learn and review notes best? Use that style here. This is essentially a giant digital notebook. With that in mind, get building!
 
Next time, we will do our wrap up on using Notion for campaign management.

Further Reading on Notion:

Art Credit: Ede László